waternow news

Like solar energy, use public financing to spur water efficiency

6/13/2015: San Francisco, CA - Decentralized water efficiency solutions have enormous potential to provide greater water security and protect environmental health. To accelerate this shift, the state should support the type of public financing mechanisms that built our centralized water storage and distribution networks in order to pay for the next generation of water conservation systems. Utilities won’t be able to do it on their own.

As drought persists, conservation nonprofit tests system in Mill Valley

January 26, 2015, A Mill Valley home has been fitted with a series of pipes and valves to send shower, sink and clotheswasher graywater to landscaping in an effort to conserve limited supplies of fresh water from Mount Tamalpais and the Russian River used by Marin residents.

7/8/2014: Los Angeles, CA - "Southern California water managers are doing such a great job that you would hardly know we are in the midst of the worst drought since record-keeping began in the late 1800s.

2/21/2014: San Francisco, CA - "Can Anybody Save California?" That was the headline of a Politico story earlier this month about our state's water crisis. Predictions of apocalypse are not uncommon when it comes to water in the West, and yet buried in the same story was a major part of the answer; notwithstanding an additional 4 million residents, demand for water in Southern California has not risen since 1990 - due largely to conservation measures. Gray water use, in particular, may be approaching its moment in the sun.

1/29/2014: Sacramento, CA - The water numbers are sobering at best. 2013 has been the driest year since California started keeping records during the Gold Rush. The Sierra snowpack is at 17 percent of normal, and there is little rain in sight. The governor has declared a drought emergency and is calling for a 20 percent reduction in water consumption.

1/27/2014: San Rafael, CA - Under a proposed collaboration, the County of Marin would ramp up promotion of graywater systems and other practices in a sustainability effort conveniently timed to address worsening drought conditions.